HANOI – Despite their impressive record against Saudi Arabia at the AFC Asian Cup, defending champions Japan are taking nothing for granted for their semi-final clash at My Dinh National Stadium on Wednesday night.

The Japanese have twice defeated the Saudis in the Asian Cup final, winning 1-0 in Hiroshima in 1992 and again in Beirut in 2000, while also trouncing the Middle Eastern side 4-1 during the group stage of the latter tournament.

However, Japan coach Ivica Osim does not want his players to reach too much into those past results.

“Saudi Arabia are a very good side,” said the former Yugoslavia coach, who was in charge of Japan during the Asian Cup qualifiers last year when they lost 1-0 to the Saudis in Jeddah in September before gaining revenge with a 3-1 win in Sapporo in November.

“They were strong last year, but they are now different, a new team under a new coach,” added the Bosnian of the team now led by Brazilian Helio dos Anjos.

“They play a more aggressive and modern style of football and also have a few players who are difficult to deal with.”

Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura admits to being impressed by the attack of the three-time winners, who began the tournament with a 1-1 draw with Korea Republic before recording three straight wins, defeating co-hosts Indonesia 2-1 and Gulf counterparts Bahrain 4-0 during the group stage, and Uzbekistan 2-1 in the quarter-finals.

“I’ve seen their games on television and I know they have a few good players, especially Yasser Al Qahtani, who is a dangerous player,” said the Celtic player.

“But we also have Bomber [Yuji Nakazawa] in our backline, too,” Nakamura added.

“It’s going to be a tough game, for sure. It’s going to be hot too.

“It’s important to have technique but you’ve got to be tough mentally as well.”

While there are doubts over the fitness of right back Akira Kaji, who hurt his ankle during the quarter-final victory against Australia and had trained separately from the rest of the squad for the last two days, Osim is hoping to name an unchanged squad for the last four clash.

“Any team has a speedy forward and the Saudi forwards are good. But that doesn’t mean that you have to change your backline. I don’t believe it is necessary to change our defenders as they have abilities,” the 66-year-old said.

“If I keep the same team or change the team around, I will get criticized if we fail anyway. But I as coach will take all the responsibilities if we lose tomorrow,” he added. Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 3:42 AM